Coconut Curry Beer Chicken Soup. 20 minutes, one pot, so good. The best chicken curry I’ve ever had was in a seedy part of Van Nuys, just north of Los Angles. This was also the setting of the most awkward conversation I’ve ever had with a stranger. The restaurant resembles a by-the-hour hotel with… Read More
Baked Buttermilk Beer Popcorn Chicken with Honey Beer Dipping Sauce. So easy and even freezer friendly! When I was 22 I worked at a locked down level 14 facility that housed juvenile delinquents. I was only there to work with one. A baby faced 12-year-old named Tyrell with dark chocolate skin and big brown eyes.… Read More
Stout Harissa Chicken Thighs. Crazy good one pot chicken. Let’s talk about an interesting question. A specifically head-tilt inducing question I’ve been asked a few dozen times over the past few months, “How do I get people to try craft beer?” My furrowed-brow-blank-stared response is usually as simple as, “Why wouldn’t they?” The… Read More
On a tall shelf in my kitchen sits my grandmothers copy of The Joy of Cooking. A thick, vintage, hard backed book with a faded red ribbon that marks the Candied Sweet Potatoes recipe on page 325 that she made every Thanksgiving. Flipping through the yellowed pages, reading her notes scrawled in the margin,… Read More
Spicy Chicken Sausage White Bean Beer Chili. One pot, twenty minutes, crazy good. For the first time in my life, winter has been the best season of the year. 2014 has been hard on me, beating me up in ways I didn’t expect, traumatic in ways I’ll never forget. Seattle, and the beautiful winter, has been… Read More
What is a Winter Ale? This is the time for generalities. With the Winter Ales, these seasonal favorites, it’s essential. Because you can get specific, and even technical with other beer styles, but the vast spectrum that these beers run along won’t allow for strict categorization. Winter ales are often what’s called an Old Ale,… Read More
One Pot Tomato Parmesan Brown Ale Fettuccini with Chicken. Even the pasta and chicken get cooked in the same pot! Sometimes I like to look at photos of old living rooms I used to occupy. The one when I was kid with the brown tweed couch, and the one with the tan futon… Read More
Sriracha and Beer Fried Chicken with Sriracha Honey Glaze. The best fried chicken I’ve ever made, and really simple. The best fried chicken I’ve ever had was in a trailer park in Compton, a particularly rough part of South Central Los Angeles (you can read that story here). Since then I’ve had a mild obsession with… Read More
Stout Mushroom Gravy and Chicken with Beer Biscuits I was once friends with a man who was 100 years old. We had a bit of an unlikely friendship, since he had reached retirement age long before I was even born. He was smart, funny, and seems to have no concept of the age… Read More
Honey Mustard Mushroom Stout Chicken: 30 minute, one pot chicken dinner. A few years ago I was stuck in a small town in south Italy on a 22 hour layover. While trying to figure out if sleeping in the tiny terminal was feasible, I met an Italian girl about my age. Her English was… Read More
I was once asked to be in a porn movie. I was 21. I was a social worker for gang members, working with a rough crowd of teenagers in an unsavory section of Los Angeles. On a particularly frustrating day of trying to convince a hot-tempered kid why punching his teacher wasn’t a “dope… Read More
Let’s say you and I get into it over pizza. We hash it out over the best pizza we’ve ever had. We talk about Naples, and LA, and both agree that New York beats Chicago, unless you want a casserole, then Chicago pizza will do. And then I tell you that the best Ray’s… Read More
For what seems like decades brewers have been involved in a bit of an ABV arms race to see who can bring to the table the IPA with highest alcohol content. The Top That ABV Game seems to be waining in favor of the Full Flavor Session IPA game, to the relief of lightweights… Read More
I’ve decided that the grill is officially open. Regardless of the weather, regardless of the time constraints, regardless of the lack of Meats on Sticks occasions in my near future. The grill needs to be open. Maybe it’s the catastrophic levels of stress in my life right now, maybe it’s my severe vitamin D… Read More
When I was 19 I thought it was a great idea to drive a 20-year-old Ford Bronco nearly the entire length of the 5 Freeway to be my primary means of transportation. Slow, old, unreliable, often ticketed, frequently towed, it didn’t end well. I was broke and had barely enough money to fill the… Read More
I know the google stalking that goes on. But don’t think it’s one sided. I see the key word searches, or the things you post about me on Facebook, but I do the same thing. I’ve clicked over to your page too, seen the vacation photos and the fact that you also have a mild… Read More
This blog has always been about pushing craft beer forward. The importance of the flavors that come with good beer, and how to explore those in a new way. From the beginning you got that and you stood next to me, exposing people to craft beer through food by sharing the recipes I’ve posted.… Read More
I didn’t grow up in a cooking household. With two working parents and seven sisters it was more of a defrost and feed the masses situation. It was culinary triage every day. I never saw a head of garlic, or a homemade cake, or real whipped cream my entire childhood. The focus was on feeding… Read More